Do you self-host? why?

Question

My first foray into self-hosting more seriously was when I wanted to stop paying for Dropbox and set up Syncthing with one location being on an always-on server. From there I got interested in controlling more of my own data and not relying on external services as much: started using self-hosted Matrix, Matrix bridges to other services, nginx, Pi-Hole, miniflux (RSS), Wallabag (like Pocket), ... now finally need to get to automated backups to the server from all my computers too.What about you? Do you self-host and why?

rvz · Accepted Answer

Yes. I self-host because the cloud is somewhat of a scam. Anything that is encrypted goes on there and I avoid paying for the subscription plan because that too is a scam. I limit the important files that get uploaded to the cloud.
The situation with WD, GitHub (For the past year), etc is the reason why I keep telling those to consider self-hosted solutions, even as a backup rather than going all in on the cloud.
It's a shame when a company that offers to backup to the cloud and your data is still lost with them. If it's self-hosted this sort of thing will not happen.

aborsy · Answer

I self host, but I wish I would not have. I wasted a lot of time on managing services.In retrospect, I would have encrypted and uploaded to a cloud. Let someone else manage the tedious job.

zzo38computer · Answer

Yes, I self-host, not only files, but also email, NNTP, gopher, etc. I can have more control over it that it does how I will want to do, for one thing.

speedgoose · Answer

No, I used to but it got boring and I prefer to spend my time on other things.

failwhaleshark · Answer

Self-host. It's cheaper, more flexibility, and more control.